2002 July

Archive for July, 2002

The CaBil, in association with Dirt Merchant Games, is bringing Human-occupied Landfill back into the light. HoL 2nd edition will ship to distributors next week, and will be at the Wizard’s Attic booth at GenCon. The hand-drawn book (yes, even the text. Yes, that book) will retail for $20, and may sell out again on novelty factor alone.

Buffy RPG To Premiere At GenConEden Studios has announced that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG has gone into the final stages of printing, and will be available at GenCon. Copies of both the regular and limited edition versions will be available, and are sure to go fast. When you get to GenCon, head to booth 848 and stake your claim.

Origins 2002 Deemed A Success
The numbers are in, and according to GAMA Executive Director Mark Simmons, Origins 2002 had a total attendance of 11,299 people. This estimate has a lower margin of error than in previous years (only 4% this year) due to new registration software. Naturally, GAMA aims to reach even higher numbers next year.

We have all seen our precious pen and paper games turned into computer games. Well card players rejoice, for the tables have turned. Access Denied is the new computer hacker card game from Interformic Games. With a 63 card deck it is up to you to crack the code before anyone else. At the same time you have to protect your system from others. Interformic Games has posted a list of startup cards on their site. Ok. You be Yahoo and I will be some recluse who sits in his basement and can’t handle social contact. Ready…Set…Go!

Mutants and Masterminds Art and Characters RevealedGreen Ronin has posted two of the characters used to playtest their yet to be released Mutants and Masterminds. Sam Wood (of D&D 3ed fame) did sketches of two characters, Inferna and the Pugilist from which author Steve Kenson created playable characters. Inferna is a smoking teenage girl (I mean that literally, she smokes like a Yule log) who has been involved with some shady government chaps. The Pugilist is an immoral boxer who shows up whenever there is boxing to be done or worlds to be saved (where was he when we all had to sit through the Tom Cruise boxing scenes in Far and Away?). Due in October 2002, Mutants and Masterminds promises to be one heck of a $32.00 rulebook.

Also from ICv2, an uncharacteristically long article about a statement signed by 52 retailers, officially compaining about GW policies. I’ve always been surprised that Games Workshop gets away with as much as it does, and, well, I don’t expect anything to change – WotC’s been the target of retailer ire like this before and has typically responded with a big fat yawn. Games Workshop has even less incentive to make substantive changes, given that it, you know, actually makes money and stuff. GW gamers just want nice deals on their models and either exhibit retailer loyalty or don’t – and increasingly, that retailer is a GW-owned store like the brand new one I just visited in San Francisco’s Metreon. It was, um, very clean.

The redoubtable ICv2 has a little more background. Garfield isn’t on the design team, but several WotC R&D longtimers are. This story seems to suggest that this game will be pitched more as geek bait than as mainstream crossover material, which may be appropriate for the audience the show has today. I worry, though – because that’s what I’m good at, okay? – that this will become some kind of embarrassing quote-fest where you get points for yelling things out on cue like an electrically stimulated paramecium. It’s not that I never quote anymore – I’ve even been known to quote Python still – but, like a lot of forms of geek humor, it doesn’t actually take much thought, you know? When I first realized how much of my brain was, from someone else’s perspective, occupied by pop culture, I resolved to start thinking of a few of my own things to say. But I’m probably worrying for nothing; no one’s going to remake the Austin Powers CCG or anything. Which I’ve never actually played, so I guess I shouldn’t bag on it. Whatever. I have peas.

Gamemastering Secrets Second Edition is at the printers. Grey Ghost Press has been promised 100 copies of their gaming opus by the time GenCon opens in August. This is going to be a great for all you first time GMs, you can learn the craft from the masters at Grey Ghost Press. For a look at the table of contents, cover art and more goodies, check out the official Gamemastering Secrets Second Edition web site. Will this thing explain the particulars of running a Slaad Lord bordello? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Masters of Arms Previews from Second World Simulations
The nice folks at Second World Simulations have been nice enough to post a ZIP preview of their upcoming September release Master at Arms. Filled with all kinds of new crunchy bits for your more violent characters, among other things Master at Arms introduces two new prestige classes ( the Dual Sai Master and the Crossbow Master) each with their own special way of smiting the more deserving monsters and bad guys.

For all you d20 enthusiasts out there, we start the week out right by bringing you an interview with Mystic Eye Games. Find out more about the d20 company that could end up a coastal wizard in its own right someday.

At the talk Reiner Knizia gave on game design (I told a couple people I’d post my notes from his talk here, but he made a joke about how he didn’t have notes to give out himself, and if he did, he’d lie about it – that made me believe that he wouldn’t want them floating around the net), he showed the cover to the Sauron expansion for the Lord of the Rings board game. It says 3 to 6 players on the cover, whereas the core game and the Friends and Foes expansion say 2 to 5. Hmm… and the cover has a picture of the, um, those guys, the Dark Riders or something? Ringwraiths? Yeah, ringwraiths. So, it adds a player and it has ringwraiths in it. Do The Proverbial Math. (I admit I was only reminded of this by the FFG Rants page, which will further give it away for you.)

Though still getting former AEG guy Kevin Wilson settled, Fantasy Flight has managed to keep cranking out the hits. The Nocturnum campaign just might be available in time for GenCon, which is sure to decrease the sanity of many Call of Cthulhu D20 characters. The modern day horror campaign details more than a dozen adventures that all lead toward a final, apocalyptic ending. In the meantime, Path of the Sword has run the gauntlet of printing devices and is now available. A sourcebook for the combative types (fighters, rangers, barbarians and monks), the book will introduce the concept of the Legendary Class, “high-level prestige classes for characters that have grown to such ability that they have become legends in their own time.” A variety of other rules will be presented as well, of course (an eight-page preview is available for the curious).

Daddy, Build Us A Mech
I have no choice but to applaud this sort of insanity. Next on the building schedule: a Death Star the size of the Epcot ball. Hey, now there’s a theme day I’d make the trip to Disneyworld for. Now you will witness the power of this fully operational theme park!

For the past few years, has run ads in the program books at Origins and GenCon. Usually, these featured free Button Men that could be cut out at the Cheapass booth and made into the fully operational model. This GenCon, the company’s skipped that in favor of a Milwaukee area newspaper coupon, which can be redeemed at the Cheapass booth for a copy of the new Hip-Pocket style game, Swag. If you can’t find the coupon, you’ll get a free copy along with a purchase of $25 or more. Freeloader will also be available at the convention, though in a pre-release form. So you’ll have to be content with an entire free game this year, and if you really want some new Button Men, you can order the new exclusively through the Cheapass website.

The first supplement for Tyranny Games‘ The End is at the printers and scheduled to reach stores next month. Entitled The Boston Massacre, the book will provide details on the Boston region, describe the Boston-D.C. conflict, and supply game stats for the area’s important personalities. A new class, the Founder Reborn, will rear its battle-scarred head as well. Also, if you missed the limited edition, black cover of The End, there may be a few lurking at the Tyranny booth at GenCon.

Wingnut Games has just released the Battle Cattle miniatures with new (and greatly improved) packaging. The Medium Battle Cattle is also seeing light for the first time in this release, so those of us who got our figs from the first release still need to get to stores for the new combatant. These figs add a lot to any session of bovine combat, so if you indulge in cattle carnage from time to time, you need to check these out. I cud you not.

The highlights of the newsletter are descriptions of two forthcoming games: Trans America, a railroad game due in late August, and Heave Ho!, a Scottish tug of war game (!) featuring Nessie (!!) due out in late August or September. The newsletter also mentions that several additional titles are in the works, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until the next issue for titles or details….